The Rotary Club of Brookfield Riverside and Share Food Share Love food pantry have come together to help anyone in need of perishable food items.
On Friday, Sept. 13, both groups hosted a ribbon cutting for Brookfield’s first community refrigerator. From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, anyone will be able to access the fridge at the Share Food Share Love food pantry, located at 9030 Brookfield Ave.
While the pantry is providing the space, members of the Rotary Club will be responsible for maintaining the fridge. Friday morning ahead of its first day being open to the public, Rotary members stocked it full of eggs, dairy products and fresh produce, as well as frozen goods in the freezer.
Juan Silva, a Rotary Club member and co-owner of Brookfield’s Beach Avenue BBQ, told the Landmark his idea for a community refrigerator was inspired by his past work.
“Before I started Beach Avenue BBQ, I used to be a social worker in Little Village and other low-income neighborhoods, and the Love Fridge was a thing that existed in those communities,” he said. “I wanted to bring that to Brookfield because I knew that there was a need.”
The Love Fridge is a mutual aid group that operates and maintains 22 community fridges in areas around Chicago.
While Rotary Club members fully stocked the fridge Friday, Silva said it will mostly run based off donations from Brookfield residents or any other charitable people. People who wish to donate unexpired food can access the fridge at the same time it’s open to those in need.
Silva said he had approached the Rotary Club with his idea for the fridge three years ago. They were able to raise funds for the initiative but quickly hit roadblocks in the form of village code compliance.
“Our idea was just to put it outside somewhere where people can access it, but we realized that there’s a lot more behind the scenes that goes into it,” he said. “Finally, we brought the idea to John from Share Food Share Love, and he agreed to host the refrigerator.”
John Dumas, the food pantry’s administrative director, said his team was in favor of the initiative immediately.
“Everybody was on board right away, because this really does fill a gap for us. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than [when] we get a call on Wednesday morning after we’ve been open on Tuesday, and somebody says, ‘I’m desperate for food,’ and we say, ‘Come Saturday,’” when the food pantry is open next, he said. “This is great for us because [we can say], ‘Hey, come by, grab something out of the fridge and then come back on Saturday and get your full complement of food.’”
Dumas said the pantry originally thought to keep the fridge accessible at all times, but Brookfield police advised against it for security reasons, so they agreed on the 16-hour daily window instead. He said Share Food Share Love also upgraded its door alarms, installed cameras and fixed it so the door locks itself at 10 p.m. each night.
Aside from that, though, he said there were few barriers to getting the fridge up and running once Share Food Share Love was involved.
“The Rotary, obviously, played a huge part in it, and the village was very supportive. The Chamber [of Commerce] was very supportive. Everybody that we’ve approached about it has just thought it was a great thing,” he said. “We actually ended up having an extra refrigerator, so it was just a question of pushing it out into the lobby.”
Dumas and Silva both said they hope Brookfield will embrace the community refrigerator.
“I would encourage the community not only to use [the fridge] if they need food but also to bring food,” Dumas said. “The pantry will be doing some stocking, but we’re really counting on the community to keep it filled.”
“There’s a food pantry over by Eight Corners, and [people in need] have [Share Food Share Love], but there’s nowhere for them to get perishables, such as eggs, dairy, things like that, maybe some fresher produce that we can keep in the refrigerator,” Silva said. “We’re just hoping to give them [some] more options other than the boxed and canned items.”